


Leave Interrupted

by celtic7irish



Category: Agent Carter (TV), Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: Case Fic, F/M, Gen, It wasn't supposed to happen this way, alternating pov
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-05-24
Updated: 2016-06-02
Packaged: 2018-06-10 12:58:07
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 8
Words: 13,064
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6957436
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/celtic7irish/pseuds/celtic7irish
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>“I’m sorry, but Miss Carter has gone on holiday,” Jarvis replied.</p><p>Daniel blinked, absorbing that.  Holiday? Since when did Peggy Carter go on holiday?  “Oh,” he managed, mulling over the new information.  “Anyone dead yet?” he asked, only semi-jokingly.</p><p>He wasn’t expecting the pregnant pause on the other end of the line.  “Mr. Jarvis?” he prompted, suddenly worried.</p><p>“Only one so far, sir,” the butler answered at last.  “Though Miss Carter has assured me that she was not responsible for the gentleman’s fall from the bridge.”</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Daniel Sousa (Prologue)

**Author's Note:**

  * For [newredshoes](https://archiveofourown.org/users/newredshoes/gifts).



> Dear newredshoes: So, you sort of left your prompt wide open, which gave me an excuse to finally put into words a story that's been tumbling about in my head for a while now. I hope you enjoy it!

Chief Daniel Sousa stared at the phone, his finger drumming lightly on the edge of his desk.  To his left sat a thin file, the information contained within barely enough to justify pulling his men off of their other cases.  He needed more to go on than speculation and rumor, and his best bet lay just a phone call away.  Peggy Carter wasn’t currently on assignment, and she didn’t exactly follow the rules like everybody else.  If he wanted to get enough evidence to open a full investigation, he needed her help.  Still, Peggy was recovering from her most recent run-in with Whitney Frost; the last thing she needed was to be pulled into an investigation that might end up being nothing after all.

 

With a sigh, he reached out and picked up the phone, dialing quickly.  If it was nothing, then it would be over quickly, and Peggy could go back to whatever she did when she wasn’t working.  He brutally quashed the small part of his brain that admitted that really, he just wanted an excuse to see Peggy again.  Their last meeting had only served to make him more confused, rather than less.

 

Two rings later, the other end of the line clicked as it was picked up.  “Stark residence.”  The smooth tenor relaxed something in Daniel’s shoulders - if Jarvis was answering the phone like usual, then Peggy was probably not in mortal danger at the moment.  Probably.

 

“Mr. Jarvis, it’s Chief Sousa,” he greeted.  “I was wondering if Agent Carter was available.  I have something that might be right up her alley.”  He kept it formal, still unsure of his standing with the other man.  They might have saved each other’s lives a time or two, but that didn’t necessarily make them friends.

 

“I’m sorry, but Miss Carter has gone on holiday,” Jarvis replied.

 

Daniel blinked, absorbing that.  Holiday? Since when did Peggy Carter go on holiday?  “Oh,” he managed, mulling over the new information.  “Anyone dead yet?” he asked, only semi-jokingly.

 

He wasn’t expecting the pregnant pause on the other end of the line.  “Mr. Jarvis?” he prompted, suddenly worried.

 

“Only one so far, sir,” the butler answered at last.  “Though Miss Carter has assured me that she was not responsible for the gentleman’s fall from the bridge.”

 

“I see,” Daniel replied slowly, because really, what else was there to say?  He closed his eyes, pinching the bridge of his nose between his thumb and forefinger, suddenly far more exhausted then he had been two minutes ago.  “Does she need help?”

 

There was a brief hesitation, and then Jarvis said, “She seems to believe that she has everything under control, sir.”  Daniel resisted the urge to roll his eyes.  Of course she did.  Peggy Carter was going to be the death of him, he was absolutely certain of it.

 

“You’ll let me know if anything changes?” Daniel asked the other man, who murmured an affirmative.  “Thanks.”

 

Hanging up the phone, Daniel took a deep breath, then slammed his fist down on his desk just as the door opened, one of the junior detectives no doubt bringing him another report.  The young man – Williams, was it? – flinched.  “You okay, Chief?” he asked.

 

Daniel smoothed out his expression.  “Yes, Williams, just some rather upsetting news.  What do you have for me?”  Determinedly, he turned his attention towards the investigation.  Peggy Carter would be just fine on her own for a few days.  After all, it wasn’t like things could get any worse.  Right?

 


	2. Edwin Jarvis

Jarvis hung up the phone, debating whether or not it had been wise to provide Chief Sousa with Miss Carter’s current status.  He was aware of the attraction between the two – he wasn’t blind, just discrete – but Peggy had chosen to leave on holiday without notifying the other man, and it really wasn’t Jarvis’ place to say anything.  Still, he couldn’t help but feel relieved now that he had a potential ally should something further go awry in the next eight days.

 

“Is everything all right, Edwin?” Ana asked as she walked into the room, her lips curling up knowingly.  Jarvis smiled back at his lovely wife.

 

“Everything is perfectly fine, Ana, love.  It seems that Chief Sousa has a case that would benefit from Miss Carter’s unique skill set.”

 

Ana’s eyes were sharp, and they missed very little.  “Is Peggy in trouble, then?” she asked pointedly.

 

Jarvis considered that for a moment.  “Not at the moment, I don’t believe,” he replied.  “But trouble seems to follow Miss Carter wherever she goes.”  Ana hummed in agreement, arranging one of the floral centerpieces sitting on its pedestal in the hallway.  Howard Stark was due to come by at any time now, provided he didn’t get distracted on a new invention – or a new woman – and while the manor was always in exceptional condition, it never hurt to put in a little extra effort.

 

“And did you tell Chief Sousa where he might find our dear Peggy?” she asked.

 

Jarvis blinked, frowning slightly.  “I did not feel that it was pertinent information, and he did not ask.”  Ana gave him a chastising look, and he asked, “Should I call him back, then?”

 

Ana shook her head.  “I don’t suppose there would be any point to it,” she sighed softly.  “You men are always so stubborn.”  Jarvis had no idea what she was referring to, but he nodded agreeably anyhow, making Ana laugh and wander over to him, the floral arrangements forgotten for a moment as she pulled him down into a kiss.  When she finally allowed him to straighten back up, her hands smoothing over invisible wrinkles, she murmured, “Whatever would I do without you, my dear Edwin?”

 

To that, Jarvis had no answer, and so he settled for laying his hands over hers, holding them over his heart.  “Let us hope that you never have to find out,” he replied quietly, seriously.  He wasn’t sure what he might have said next, but the sudden gong of the doorbell startled them both, and Jarvis pulled away from his wife reluctantly.  “I suppose I should go answer the door,” he murmured, turning away.  The slap to his backside wasn’t entirely unexpected, and he grinned a bit to himself as he hurried for the front door.

 

There was a loud thump, followed by an equally loud curse, and Jarvis opened the door to stare at the disheveled, half-dressed man who just happened to be his boss.  “Welcome home, sir,” he said, pulling the door open completely and moving to the side so that Howard Stark could walk in.  The other man did so, and Jarvis quickly realized why he hadn’t bothered to call him to come pick him up, or opened the door himself.  Stark’s hands were cuffed behind his back, his shoulders pulled back rather uncomfortably.  “Should I be expecting the local authorities, then?” he asked archly.

 

Howard glared at him.  “No, of course not!  Why would you even think that?”  He wiggled his fingers behind his back.  “These are a gift from Laila.  Very talented.  Unfortunately, she has a habit of losing things.”  Like the key to a pair of handcuffs, which would explain why Howard was still wearing them.

 

“Of course, sir,” he deadpanned.  “Shall I being to procure the appropriate keys for your residences?”

 

The look his friend and employer gave him was eloquent.  “No, Jarvis.  What you should do is call Peg.  Unless your lockpicking skills have improved?  I’m starting to lose circulation, so if you could call her now, that would be excellent.”

 

“I’m sorry, sir,” Jarvis replied, careful to conceal his amusement.  “I’m afraid that Miss Carter has gone on holiday.  I believe that I might be able to get them open, if you’ll give me an hour or so.”  Actually, thanks to Miss Carter’s penchant for kidnapping the enemy, he was pretty sure he actually had keys to standard handcuffs in the sitting room.

 

Brown eyes narrowed at him threateningly, but he was undeterred, and after a long moment, Howard gave in with a sardonic grin.  “Fine Jarvis, have it your way.  Now, get me out of these.  And tell me how Peg’s doing.”

 

Jarvis left to fetch the key, his mind less on his troubled employer than on the woman in question.  He supposed that he might as well just place an announcement in the paper regarding Miss Carter’s whereabouts at this point.

 

Keeping these thoughts to himself, he replied in the only way he could. 

 

“Of course, sir.” 


	3. Peggy Carter

Peggy ducked behind a conveniently nearby car as a hail of bullets rained down on the street where she’d been just seconds earlier, resisting the urge to swear in a most unladylike fashion.  Not that she cared much about being a lady, but she did care about not giving the shooters her exact location.  This was not what she’d had in mind when she’d decided to take a brief holiday before resuming her hunt for Whitney Frost.

 

She should have known something was up the moment she’d found the dead body down by the river.  Judging the rope that was still wrapped around the man’s wrists and ankles, it was unlikely to have been a suicide.  Still, she’d called the local police and turned the whole mess over to them, certain that it wasn’t her problem.  Apparently, the men shooting at her didn’t feel the same way.

 

“Oh, yes, Miss Carter, please do enjoy your holiday.  I’m certain that it’ll be absolutely delightful this time of year,” she muttered under her breath as she replaced the clip in her Walther PPK/S, her fingers steady despite the hail of bullets slamming into the car at her back, glass shattering onto the street as one of the bullets struck a window.  “When I get back, Mr. Jarvis is in for a piece of my mind,” she promised to herself.  She really wished she had at least brought the Colt along, but she had only been going into town to pick up a few groceries.

 

Honestly, though, it wasn’t like she’d been expecting Hydra to be taking a beach vacation in Malibu of all places!   She wasn’t even an hour away from Los Angeles, and she was more than ready to return there.

 

The gunfire stopped for a moment, and Peggy took the opening to dart across the street, firing off a couple of shots as she moved, hitting one of the gunmen in the arm and causing the others to take cover.  She dived behind another car, pausing to catch her breath as shots were fired behind her again.  A man came around the back of the car, and Peggy fired at him, watching him fall back with a strangled curse.  Bracing her hand against the cool metal behind her, she moved into a crouch, preparing to move at any moment.

 

Suddenly, there was shouting and more gunfire, and Peggy ducked back down, slowly moving towards the front of the car to take a look, careful to make sure nobody came up behind her.  Peering around the car’s bumper didn’t yield a good view, so she shuffled forward, he grip firm on her gun in case she had to start shooting.

 

“Yeah, that’s right, run, ya slimy bastards!” a familiar voice crowed.  Peggy grinned, surging up to her feet and bracing her stance as she fired at the retreating Hydra agents, her bullets zipping past a familiar form and striking two more operatives.  She didn’t recognize everybody, but Dum-Dum Dugan was hard to mistake for anybody else.

 

“Ah, there you are, Peggy!” he grinned when he caught sight of her.  “All right, fellas, look like we’ve run them off,” he said, holstering his Colt M1911A1.  The men around him responded with whoops and hollers, some of them running after the fleeing men to make sure they didn’t circle back around.

 

Peggy let Dum-Dum pull her into a firm hug, her feet lifting a few inches off the ground.  She grinned.  “What are you doing here, Dugan?” she asked. “Are the others here as well?”  She knew that at least a few of them were here in America, though they had scattered after the war.  She had thought that Dugan was still in New York.

 

He gave her a wide smile through his busy mustache.  “Just rounding up some new recruits,” he shrugged.  “This is the first action they’ve seen since the war ended, so they’re a bit excited,” he added ruefully.  Peggy grinned; they were crazy, every last one of them.  Which was probably why she liked them so much.

 

“Now, how about you? What is Captain America’s best girl doing out here?” he asked, gesturing to the men around them to follow as he headed for a nearby car, the others branching off into groups of three or four.

 

“I’m supposed to be on vacation, if you’d believe it,” Peggy admitted.

 

Dugan blinked.  “Not much of a vacation, is it?” he asked.

 

Peggy grinned.  “No, not much of one,” she agreed.  “But really, what are you doing here?” she asked, more than happy to change the subject.

 

Dugan shrugged, opening the passenger side door so she could slide in.  After he got himself settled in the driver’s seat and started the car moving towards wherever it was that they were going, he glanced at her out of the corner of his eye.  “Just looking for a few good men,” he said after a long moment.  “Well,” he amended, “maybe not all _that_ good.” He flashed a quick smile at her before turning his attention back to the road.  “For S.H.I.E.L.D.”

 

Peggy frowned.  She’d hadn’t realized that Howard had already started recruiting people for the Strategic Homeland Intervention and Logistics Division, an organization that was intended to be a government agency that was larger and more expansive than the SSR, that would serve as a shield to protect the world against organizations like Hydra.  He had asked Peggy to help found it, as well as Colonel Phillips.  But he had seemed far more interested in womanizing than he had in starting a secret government organization.  Besides, Peggy had her hands full at the moment with Whitney Frost.

 

“Ah, I see,” she said instead.  “And where is Howard in all this?”

 

“Last I heard, he was in Los Angeles,” Dugan told her, seemingly surprised that she hadn’t already known. “How long have you been on vacation?”  Peggy didn’t dignify that with a response.  No doubt Howard was out cavorting with yet another woman.  Or else he had gotten side-tracked by an idea for yet another one of his unpredictable, unreliable experiments.

 

Seeming to realize that Peggy didn’t want to talk about what Howard might be up to, Dugan started up a very one-sided conversation, sharing small details about some of the other men that Peggy had seen.  If she was perfectly honest with herself, they sounded a lot like the Howling Commandos, and Peggy felt a sharp pain in her chest at the thought, the sudden grief catching her by surprise.  She had long ago accepted that Steve Rogers was gone, drowned or frozen – or both – in the icy waters of the Arctic.  But it was more than that; she missed the easy camaraderie that had surrounded the team, the knowledge that every man there had each other’s back, that they could, and would, travel into Hell if that’s where their Captain led them, and trust that he’d lead them back out, covered in soot and victorious.

 

The car rolled to a stop, and Peggy blinked, realizing that she’d been lost in her own thoughts for quite some time.  Dugan was eyeing her worriedly, and she shook her head brusquely.  “They sound like fine men,” she told him, letting herself out the car and looking around.  This, at least, felt like home; a small side street bearing parallel rows of small shops all crammed together, people mostly window-shopping, their chatter a low buzz of nonsensical noise, interrupted occasionally by the honk of a car on the main road or the bright sound of laughter.

 

There was a library on the corner, and that’s where Dugan headed, Peggy keeping pace as she eyed her surroundings, dodging people as they made their way towards the large structure.  As was usually the case in places like this, the mass of people lent a certain degree of anonymity, and nobody so much as glanced at them twice as they strode up the stairs to the library and slipped inside.  The interior was cool and dry, and Peggy took a moment to let her eyes adjust to the dimness before following Dugan.  The aisles were wide and airy, and there was a central study area filled with overstuffed, comfortable chairs and simple, long tables.  A few people were inside, despite the beautiful weather, reading or studying.

 

Dugan ignored all of that, heading past the lobby and the biography section, making a right into a separate room that was filled with research books.  There were encyclopedias and newspapers and large, thick tomes filled with information that few people actually cared about, as evidenced by the fact that the room was empty.  Save for a single person, a woman seated in the back behind a large oak desk, a single lamp illuminating the maps in front of her.

 

She barely glanced up at the two of them as they walked by, Dugan offering her a cheerful, “Mornin’, Darlene!” as he headed for a plain wooden door partially hidden behind a shelf of books.  There was a quiet buzz as they approached, and Dugan pressed his hand against the doorframe.  Peggy noted that there weren’t any handles on the door, but that didn’t matter as it slid to the side, revealing a set of stairs.

 

“Feels almost like home,” she commented as Dugan gestured for her to lead the way.  “Although, I’m surprised there isn’t a password.”

 

She could hear the laughter in the other man’s voice as he confided, “Her name’s not Darlene.”  Peggy paused only for a moment as she considered that.

 

“Does she change her name often, then?” she asked lightly.  Dugan’s pleased chortle was answer enough.

 

At the bottom of the stairs was a long hallway, with doors set at uneven intervals on either side, each of them labeled with a number and nothing else.  There weren’t even windows, so Peggy had no idea what was behind each of the doors, and the hallway was eerily empty.  Dugan took the lead again, and went straight to door 13 and pushed it open, Peggy following.

 

For as quiet as it had been a moment before, Peggy suddenly found herself surrounded by people and a flurry of activity.  This was obviously some sort of call center, with phones ringing and people chattering, interns scurrying around delivering messages. 

 

Dugan’s entrance didn’t go unnoticed.  “Hey, Dum-Dum! Peggy!” a familiar voice called out, and Peggy waved over at Private Jim Morita, incredibly pleased to see him.  There was a brief lull in activity as people paused to look at them, but a quick, “Quit yer gawkin’!” from Morita started them moving again, and the two of them made their way across the office space.

 

As soon as they were in front of him, Jim handed a note to Dugan and eyed Peggy with exaggerated suspicion.  “How’d you get involved with a Hydra sleeper cell, Peggy?” he demanded incredulously.

 

Peggy scowled.  “I stumbled across a dead body while enjoying a hike,” she snapped back, still a bit put out.  She was supposed to be on vacation, not getting into shooting matches with Hydra agents in Malibu’s largest shopping district.

 

“That explains the pants,” Jim sassed, then handed her a note before she could do more than roll her eyes.  “Stark called a bit ago, said he had something for you.  Well,” he corrected, “a Chief Sousa has a case and mentioned it to Stark’s butler, who mentioned it to Stark.  Who then called us lookin’ for you.”

 

Peggy unfolded the note almost eagerly – a case actually sounded preferable to her so-called vacation right now.  Skimming its contents, she frowned, then read back over it a bit more slowly.  One of Daniel’s men had found a body in an alley, but the manner of death seemed almost identical to the man that she had found in the river.

 

She looked over at Dugan.  “Any idea what killed the man I found earlier?” she asked brusquely.  She had, in fact, called it in, and if the local police knew about the body, she was certain that this branch of the SSR did as well.

 

Dugan shook his head.  “We thought it was a plain murder,” he explained, “until Hydra took it personally.”  Which made a lot of sense, actually; a little more digging might have revealed something unusual about the manner of death – or the body itself – but Hydra hadn’t been willing to wait and see.  Which meant that Peggy needed to get back to Los Angeles.

 

“Can you send a message back?” she asked Jim, who nodded.  “Good.  Tell Chief Sousa to hold tight and to not tamper with the body.  And to watch out for Hydra operatives,” she added almost absently as she debated whether or not she needed to swing by the bed and breakfast she’d been staying at before catching the first bus out of town.

 

Before she could ask for a ride, a young man stuck his head out of a side door.  “Uh….Agent Carter?” he asked awkwardly.

 

“That would be me, yes,” Peggy agreed.  When the boy glanced to the men on either side of her, she narrowed her eyes at him.  “Do you have a message for me?” she demanded.

 

“Uh, oh, sorry ma’am.  Agent,” he corrected hastily, meeting her eyes briefly before dropping them again.  She found herself feeling almost sorry for him; clearly this young man didn’t know how to deal with a woman.  She’d met plenty like him before, but at least he wasn’t patronizing her.  “A Mister Stark called, said you’d find his butler waiting outside of your…residence.”

 

“Mr. Jarvis. Excellent,” Peggy smiled, knowing that the butler had probably jumped at the chance to drive all the way to Malibu just to pick her up.  She just hoped that Hydra wasn’t waiting outside the bed and breakfast as well, in an attempt to get the jump on her.  Jarvis really didn’t need to get caught in the crossfire, especially not after Whitney had shot his wife.  Peggy was tired of putting the people around her at risk, but she couldn’t deny that she’d prefer Jarvis’ company over anybody else’s right now.  And it would certainly make getting back home easier.

 

Dugan didn’t even ask if she was sure, just hollered, “Johnson! Mallory!”  Two men stood up from their desks and hurried over to him.  “Take Agent Carter back to pick up her things, and make sure there are no Hydra thugs waitin’ for her.” 

 

“Yes, sir,” the two men agreed, nodding to Peggy before turning and heading out.

 

“Sorry I can’t come this time, Peggy,” Dugan apologized, “but I trust those two – recruited them myself.  And they know better than to mess with you.”

 

Peggy shook her head.  “It’s all right,” she reassured the soldier.  “I’m sure they’ll be fine. I’ll protect them if need be.”  The laugh she got from Dugan and Morita was worth it, and she gave them each a hug and extracted promises to keep in touch before following another agent out of the office and back up the stairs.  Darlene – or whatever her name was – didn’t even look up from her book, but Peggy could feel her attention at her back as they left.

 

One of the agents – Mallory, she believed – was waiting by the car, and he opened the door for her as she approached.  “Ma’am,” he greeted respectfully, his tone and expression carefully neutral.  Peggy inclined her head in thanks and settled into the backseat.  Agent Mallory climbed into the passenger’s side and Agent Johnson moved the car into traffic, taking several smaller side streets and slowly meandering closer to Peggy’s temporary residence.  She appreciated the consideration, but would have preferred to just take her chances and go the short way.  She was pretty sure she could have walked to the inn faster than they were getting there in the car.

 

Regardless, they did eventually arrive, and Agents Johnson and Mallory didn’t insist on going inside before her to scope the place out.  Peggy picked out Edwin Jarvis easily enough – he was both the tallest and the most well-dressed man in the immediate vicinity, and she strode up to where he was waiting with a warm smile, holding her arms out to him.  “Mr. Jarvis,” she greeted.  “Thank you for coming.”

 

Jarvis gave her a pleased smile in return, humoring her and allowing a brief hug of greeting.  “Miss Carter, it was my pleasure,” he replied sincerely.  That was what Peggy loved most about the man; he was refreshingly honest.  Even when she’d prefer that he kept his thoughts to himself, she couldn’t deny that his dry sense of humor over even the most ridiculous of observations was somewhat invigorating.

 

“So, I hear Howard is up to his usual antics again,” she stated brusquely, glancing in the boot when Jarvis opened it, pleased to see that her belongings were already stored.  There would be no delay in returning to Los Angeles.  She’d been rather tired of living out of her suitcases anyhow.

 

“I’m afraid so,” Jarvis agreed with a pained grimace.  “But then again, I do not believe it was Mr. Stark whose impassioned plea draws you back to Los Angeles.

 

Peggy muffled her laugh behind her hand, her eyes sparkling.  “Quite right,” she agreed, allowing Jarvis to open the car door for her.  Agents Johnson and Mallory shifted uneasily where they stood, as if uncertain whether or not the Englishman could be trusted.  She stuck her head out the window.  “Oh, do go on.  I’m all packed and heading home.  Please give Misters Dugan and Morita my regards,” she stated primly. 

 

As Jarvis started the car and pulled away from the curb, she turned her attention to the file in her hands. Vacation was over, and she had work to do.  They all did.


	4. Peggy Carter

Peggy’s arrival back in Los Angeles was met with little fanfare.  Jarvis took her directly to the SSR office, knowing that she’d be eager to get straight to work on the case.  And maybe, just a bit, she was also looking forward to seeing Daniel again.

 

She got the same semi-contemptuous, wary looks as usual, and she ignored them the same as always.  It wasn’t her fault that the men in this place couldn’t keep up. Or that they thought she couldn’t. Or shouldn’t.  Besides, she much preferred contempt over condescension.

 

Peggy followed Agent Burkes into the Chief’s office, sliding over to stand to the side as Burkes dropped another sheaf of paper onto Daniel’s desk.  The dark-haired man just sighed, his eyes flicking over it.  “Another body?  Same manner of death as the others?” he asked, though it wasn’t really a question.

 

“Yes, sir,” Agent Burkes answered anyhow, his tone serious.  “That makes four now.”  Peggy’s eyebrows lifted in surprise – four bodies?  Did that count the one that she had stumbled across in Malibu?  Or was that just locally? Just what on earth was going on here?

 

Daniel’s eyes flickered over to her, and he gave her a small smile of acknowledgment before dismissing Burkes.  As soon as the man left, he sighed, slouching back in his chair and running a hand tiredly through his hair.  “You’re back early, Peg,” he said.  “Did you miss the office that badly?” He was teasing, but it was easy to hear the relief in his voice, and Peggy walked up to him, reaching for the files on his desk.  Daniel let her take them, and she stared down at the bodies – four of them, in addition to the one that she had found.

 

“Apparently, the universe has decided that it would be better served if I refrained from taking any further vacations,” Peggy replied absently as she leafed through the files, keen eyes and a quick mind picking out the problem within moments.  “Hmm…so not drowned, then,” she murmured.  “They lived under the water?”  She barely blinked at the idea; what with super soldier serums, lethal parasites, and portals to unknown places, a bunch of humanoids living underwater was hardly something to balk at.

 

Daniel shrugged.  “Nobody has been able to identify any of the bodies,” he admitted.  “And they don’t appear to breathe like we do, either.  We’re still waiting for the results from the autopsy.”  He heaved himself to his feet.  “I’m glad you’re back, Peg,” he said at last.  “Whatever’s going on, somebody doesn’t want us anywhere near it.”

 

Peggy grinned back at him.  “Which is what makes it so interesting,” she replied.  Daniel chuckled, and Peggy looked over at Jarvis, who was wandering the perimeter of the room, looking at the various rewards and recognitions from previous Chiefs.  “Mr. Jarvis, if you’re ready, we have a stop to make,” she said, and the butler looked over at her.

 

“Of course, Miss Carter,” he agreed.  When Peggy made no move to leave the room, he continued.  “I’ll just wait for you at the car, shall I?” he asked.

 

“That would be for the best,” Peggy agreed, waiting until Jarvis had left and closed the door firmly behind him before turning and giving Daniel a quick kiss.  He smiled against her lips.

 

“You know that they’re giving me flack for dating Captain America’s girl, don’t you?” he asked, his tone light but his eyes serious.

 

Peggy looked at him archly.  “They can mind their own business, and I’d thank them to leave me out of it,” she retorted.  “Besides,” she murmured, leaning in for another quick kiss, “he didn’t get to take me dancing.”  She still hadn’t told Daniel about that dream, but it didn’t matter.  She knew, and that was enough.  Besides, he’d very nearly gotten himself killed trying to save her – to save everyone.  Daniel was a good man, and life wasn’t long enough for wasted opportunities.

 

Grabbing his coat and his crutch, Daniel opened the door for Peggy, and she swept out of the office, Daniel following behind.  His men, to their credit, kept their mouths shut, though their expressions made their opinions of their relationship rather obvious.

 

“Burkes, call me if any more bodies turn up,” Daniel ordered.  “Singer, Clark, get a move on. I don’t pay you to sit on your rears when there’s work to be done.  McCutcheon, check in with our neighbors, see if anybody other than Malibu has had bodies turn up with the same COD.  If you go out, make sure someone’s got your back.  These guys aren’t very happy with us sticking our noses in their business.”  The men scrambled to do as they were told, and Peggy smiled to herself.  Being in charge had done a world of good for Daniel’s self-confidence, and it showed.  He walked now with his back straight and his head held high, proud in a quiet, simple way.

 

Jarvis was waiting for them by the car, as promised, and he greeted them both, opening the door for Peggy.  “Miss Carter, Chief Sousa.”

 

“Call me Daniel, please,” Daniel asked.

 

Jarvis nodded.  “Of course, sir,” he replied.  Daniel just sighed, and Peggy hid a smile behind her hand.

 

“Good luck trying to get Mr. Jarvis to call you anything other than sir or Chief,” she told him pragmatically.  “I gave up eons ago.”

 

Daniel settled into the back seat, only to find himself shoved over a moment later as Howard Stark climbed in after him.  “Hello there, pal,” he greeted a startled Daniel.  “How’s it going?”  Without bothering to wait for a reply, he leaned forward between the seats to talk to Peggy.  “Peg, I heard you’re finding trouble again,” he said reprovingly.

 

Peggy leveled him with an unimpressed stare.  “Trouble finds me, Howard,” she replied bluntly.  “I trust that none of this is going to lead back to you.”  Howard winced, and her eyes narrowed.  “Tell me,” she demanded.  They didn’t have time to pussyfoot around.

 

“Why do you assume that this is somehow my fault?” Howard demanded.  “That’s hurtful, you know.”

 

“And yet,” Peggy refuted, “you don’t deny that you are somehow involved.  Mr. Jarvis, drive, please,” she requested, and Jarvis pulled away from the curb.

 

“Do you have a destination in mind, Miss Carter?” he asked, ignoring his benefactor’s startled look.

 

Peggy nodded.  “We’re heading for the Port of Los Angeles,” he stated.  “But we have a stop to make first.”  Her intentions must have been pretty clear, because Jarvis headed for what Peggy secretly considered The Weapons Cache.  It housed many of Howard’s creations, and more weapons than Peggy had ever seen in one place.  She might not know what was happening just yet, but she was determined to find out, and it wouldn’t do to walk into a potential ambush unarmed.  Malibu had been a surprise.  She had no intention of letting it happen again.

 

Howard seemed unconcerned about their current destination, and was instead re-introducing himself to Daniel.  “Hello, there!  Howard Stark.” He offered his hand, which Daniel accepted.  “So, what’s your relationship with my Peggy?” he asked.

 

Peggy slid a bullet into her Walther PPK/S, clicking it shut with finality.  Howard tipped his head towards her.  “Peg?” he asked innocently, his eyes filled with mischief.

 

“I wasn’t aware that Peggy belonged to anybody,” Daniel replied seriously.  “Besides, I’m pretty sure she’s the one in charge.”

 

Howard sighed.  “Yes, I suppose she is, at that,” he agreed glumly.  Then he perked up. “Hey, do you know she actually shot at Captain America?” he asked.  Daniel made a vague noise, which Howard apparently took as interest, because he launched into a story involving himself, Steve, Peggy, and half a dozen tanks.  It was all lies – Steve had stolen the tanks when he’d rescued the entirety of the 107th, and Peggy had never once in her life parachuted out of a plane – but it made for an excellent distraction.  And it more or less kept Howard from offending everybody in the car except maybe Jarvis, who appeared to be immune.

 

Five minutes away from their destination, Daniel broke into the conversation. “Um…”  Howard just kept talking, but Peggy glanced back at Daniel, who was staring intently out the window.  “Jarvis, turn left!” he barked out suddenly, and Jarvis’ hands moved, swinging into a hard left turn.  Car horns honked and tires squealed.  Peggy braced herself against the door.

 

“What was that?!” Howard demanded from the back seat, rubbing his head.  “What’s so important?”  But Peggy had seen what Daniel had noticed first.

 

“We’ve got company!” she shouted, scrambling out of her seatbelt and grabbing the steering wheel from a surprised Jarvis, taking them down a narrow alley.  The front corner panel caught a pole on the sidewalk, and Howard swore.   Daniel just pulled his gun from its holster, his own seatbelt already unbuckled as he reached for the window.  Behind them, the two black cars swung into the alley, while a third one cut them off at the far side.  “Jarvis!” Peggy warned, and the butler took the wheel back, not slowing down and aiming for the car in front of them.

 

Men scrambled out of their way, their guns up and aimed towards the car.  “Please duck,” Jarvis said calmly, his expression set in determined lines.  Peggy, Daniel, and Howard all did as he asked, and Jarvis slid further down in his seat, his foot stomping harder on the gas.  Gun shots rang out, and glass showerd down on them as the windows were blown out, but the car kept moving forward. 

 

“Brace!” Peggy yelled, just before the car sideswiped the one at the end of the alley, sending it spinning.  Jarvis shifted back up, wrenching the wheel and sending the car in a hundred and eighty degree turn.

 

“Wait, what are you doing?” Howard demanded as Peggy and Daniel spilled out of the car, weapons raised as they took cover behind the car doors, using them for shields and firing around and above them.  “That’s dangerous!” he added needlessly, diving out of the car and ducking around behind the trunk.  Jarvis followed him, popping open the truck.

 

“I believe these might be useful right now,” he told them, handing them each a gun.

 

Peggy shot one of the men in the shoulder.  “Thank you, Mr. Jarvis” she replied politely.  “However, I believe it might be in our best interest to not wait around for backup.”

 

“Agreed,” Daniel added.  “And right now, I’m pretty sure these guys have nothing better to do than shoot at us.”

 

“What’s all the fuss about?” Howard asked, having acquired his own gun at some point, taking potshots at the bad guys who were shooting at them.  Peggy ducked as a particularly decent shot clipped the edge of the window frame.

 

Jarvis ducked back into the car.  “I have a suggestion,” he said, his voice muffled as the car started up.  “Run.”  He dropped something onto the pedals, and the car shot forward, with nobody inside.  Peggy, Howard, and Daniel took Jarvis’ advice, heading for the nearest alleyway as men shouted and scrambled for cover behind them.

 

“Oh, excellent plan, Jarvis,” Howard snapped. “Now we don’t have a car, and I don’t think we can outrun one, either.”  He glanced at Daniel, who ignored it, determinedly keeping pace with them. 

 

“It bought us time,” Peggy pointed out, resisting the urge to smack Howard upside the head.  He was a good man – a bit eccentric, maybe, but his heart was in the right place – but he was an idiot sometimes.  “Besides, I’m sure you have more.”

 

Howard was silent for a moment.  “Well, yeah, but that’s not the point,” he said at least, weakly.  Nobody dignified that with a response, and after a moment, he spoke up again.  “Fine, then will somebody at least tell me where we’re going?” he asked.

 

Peggy smiled grimly.  “We’re going to give Hydra the surprise of their lives,” she answered.

 

She just hoped Hydra didn’t have any more surprises of their own.


	5. Daniel Sousa

Daniel should probably feel bad that Howard Stark’s car had been sacrificed to buy them some time, but as he watched Jarvis load weapons carefully into a duffle bag – they’d undoubtedly need more than they could carry on their own – he just couldn’t be bothered. Stark had several more cars at his disposal, and the loss of one had probably saved their lives. 

 

“So, does this happen a lot when you’re with Peggy?” he asked Jarvis, securing weapons about his person. He lifted an altered semi-automatic and looked at it carefully before setting it back down, smart enough to not trust anything that had been modified by Howard Stark.

 

“As often as it happens to you, I would imagine,” Jarvis replied, startling a surprised chuckle out of him. Across the way, Peggy was pointing at various weapons, demanding explanations from Stark. She had a handful of potentials sitting on a nearby table that she’d cleared off as soon as they’d arrived.  They were on a schedule.

 

“That often, huh?” he asked wryly.

 

“Indeed.”

 

He saw Jarvis hesitate for a moment, as if debating if he wanted to say anything. “Do you have any idea why there are men shooting at us?” he asked.  Jarvis knew about Hydra, of course – being around Howard Stark and Peggy Carter for any length of time guaranteed that he was, at minimum, familiar with their symbol, and the men shooting at them had been wearing it rather prominently on their uniforms.

 

Daniel shrugged. “Dead bodies are turning up, but they aren’t exactly human,” he explained.  “At least, no human that I’ve ever seen.  Apparently, Hydra is somehow involved with them as well.  They don’t like it when people interfere in their business.”  His voice was wry as he delivered the understatement of the year.

 

“Ah,” Jarvis replied. “Must be Tuesday.”  Because really, what else could be said?  Peggy had a knack for finding trouble, and the SSR was actively involved in unusual occurrences that happened outside the jurisdiction of local law enforcement, so finding out that Hydra was chasing them because they’d stumbled across the corpses of non-humans was almost normal by this point.

 

“Must be,” Daniel agreed, looking up as Peggy and Howard made their way over to them. “You do realize that most of these weapons are completely illegal, right?” he asked, unconcerned.

 

“I think that most of these weapons are too advanced to be illegal,” Peggy retorted, handing a modified rifle to Jarvis, who added it to the duffle bag before zipping it closed. “I also think that we need to get a move on before we have more dead bodies.  Or none at all.  At this point, I’m not sure which would be worse.”

 

Daniel thought about that. “If Hydra succeeds in cleaning this up, it’ll probably mean a bigger mess down the road,” he admitted as the group of them followed Howard out of the container and towards a nearby street.  He really hoped that Howard’s plan wasn’t to call them a taxi.  That would undoubtedly end with them all being arrested.

 

Peggy sighed. “That’s what I was afraid of.”

 

Howard, who had been filled in by Peggy, grinned at them. “You’re assuming that we’ll survive this adventure,” he pointed out cheerfully.  Next to Daniel, Jarvis just sighed resignedly.

 

“Why, yes, thank you, Howard,” Peggy sniped. “We’re carrying an arsenal because I plan to surrender to Hydra.”

 

“No need to get snippy with me, Peg,” Howard retorted. “I’m being practical.  This is me being practical.  I’m a scientist, not a soldier.  We’ve been over this before.”  Daniel didn’t hear Peggy’s reply, but judging by Howard’s grimace, she had won the argument.  His mouth twitched upwards in an aborted smile.

 

They rounded a corner, and Daniel’s eyes were immediately drawn to a brilliant red Chevrolet Coupe. He could tell from just a look that Howard had been tinkering with it.  “That won’t fly or anything, will it?” he asked suspiciously.

 

Howard grinned at him. “You were at the expo?” he asked, delighted.  He shook his head.  “No, that one’s back at the manor.  Her name’s Lola.”  He looked almost nostalgic.  Daniel didn’t want to know who Lola was, or why Stark had named a flying car after her.  It was probably safer for his sanity that he didn’t know.

 

“You are not driving, Howard,” Peggy scolded when Stark went to climb into the front seat. She glanced at Jarvis.  “And neither are you.”  Jarvis just blinked at her, nonplussed.  “Well? Go on.  In the back with you,” Peggy urged.  The look of discomfort and confusion on Jarvis’ face was priceless, and Daniel couldn’t help the small part of him that felt a vindictive spike of pleasure at the thought of the other man having to put up with Stark’s incessant babbling.

 

Peggy climbed behind the wheel, and Daniel slid into the front passenger seat, relishing the chance to stretch his bum leg out. Behind him, Jarvis gave a resigned sigh, looking about as uncomfortable as the man ever got.  Howard, for his part, seemed just fine with the seating arrangements. “So, fill me in,” he said, sprawling out comfortably in the back seat.  Jarvis just shifted to accommodate him.

 

Glancing at him in the rearview mirror, Peggy sighed. “We’ve been over this already, Howard. Dead bodies, Hydra. Any of this ringing a bell? And why are you here, anyhow?” she demanded.

 

“Aw, Peg, don’t be like that,” Howard teased gently. “I told you, I just happened to be passing the office when I saw you and Jarvis, here. It looked like you were up to something, and I was bored.” 

 

Daniel didn’t even bother to hide his grin. He knew there was a reason he liked Howard; the man was completely off his rocker, and he didn’t even care.

 

“Somehow, I don’t believe that,” Peggy told him. “So why were you really there?”

 

Howard sighed. “Look, Peggy, I really was just passing by.  I just got word that the last expedition failed, so I went for a walk to clear my head.  I may have also heard from Mr. Dugan regarding your little conflict with Hydra,” he admitted.

 

Peggy’s expression turned sad for a moment, and Daniel realized that Howard had been talking about the hunt for Captain Steve Rogers. He knew that Howard had funded several expeditions dedicated to the retrieval of the national icon.  He also knew that Peggy had loved Steve Carter, for all the good it had done her.

 

He scoffed. “I’m surprised you’re bored already.  Don’t you have inventing to do or something?”

 

Howard shrugged, reclining back in his seat with his hands behind his head. “Probably,” he agreed easily enough.  “But I blew up the lab about three hours ago, and it’ll be at least two days before I can get new equipment in there.  And Laila was not quite what I had in mind for killing time,” he added.  “She – “

 

“We don’t care,” three voices chorused at once. Howard just grin, reclining back and closing his eyes, completely unperturbed at their apparent lack of interest.

 

Daniel looked over at his co-worker, and the woman he hoped would maybe someday be his wife, and asked, “Don’t you think we’re a bit obvious?”

 

Peggy considered that for a moment, but then shook her head. “No. Well, yes, but that’s kind of the point.  They’ll be looking for us trying to be sneaky.  Black car, blacked-out windows, that sort of thing.  I don’t think they’ll be expecting a bright red car with Howard Stark’s name on the license plate.  Of course,” she added, as a suspicious-looking car turned left ahead of them, “I could be wrong.”  But she didn’t seem terribly concerned, and Daniel settled his hand on his pistol, watching out the window for anybody tailing them.

 

Peggy navigated them through the streets of Los Angeles, heading for the port while somehow managing to look like they weren’t heading for the port. “Are you sure this is the best plan?” she asked as she pulled down a side street by the dock where the last two bodies had washed up.  “I would imagine that the bodies would be long gone, and Hydra is good at covering their tracks, if nothing else.”

 

Daniel stared at her incredulously, but it was Howard who spoke up. “And you couldn’t have told us this before we got here?” he demanded.

 

Daniel held up a hand. “Nobody asked you to come, Stark,” he said.  “And this is still the only lead we’ve got.  I don’t know about you, but I’ve never heard of people who could live underwater.”

 

“I am fairly certain that it is indeed a relatively new concept,” Jarvis agreed. “However, I feel that I must point out that the corpses would seem to indicate that we have not actually found any such creature.”

 

They all mulled over that for a moment. “True,” Daniel admitted. “But they were definitely up to something.  Just because it didn’t work doesn’t mean that there’s no value in it,” he pointed out.  He really didn’t like the idea that these were just experiments.  He had heard about the fate that befell some members of the 107th – they all had.  Now that the war was over, he’d hoped that Hydra would lay low with the fall of their Nazi counterparts.  He should have known he couldn’t be that lucky.  Between Russian assassins, Stark’s weapons of mass destruction, Whitney Frost and her mystical portals, and now what was starting to look like human experiments, his luck had gone to hell ever since he had gotten involved with Peggy Carter and her friends.

 

“Let’s go,” Peggy said, impatient. The three men looked at each other, then turned to follow her, keeping their weapons concealed.  It was unlikely that Hydra would be waiting to ambush them, but walking out in broad daylight with their weapons in their hands would cause a stir. 

 

Daniel moved to take the lead, playing up his injury. Peggy walked by his side, one arm linked through his.  They garnered a few looks, but nobody looked twice, far too busy with their jobs to care about a wounded man and his sister.  Howard had been left with the car, and Jarvis had been sent to visit the port office, mostly to keep him out of sight.  A tall, well-dressed Englishman would attract far too much attention from a bunch of grimy dock workers, and that was attention they didn’t need.

 

Peggy didn’t have to ask where they were headed; she had memorized enough of the report from the office to be fairly confident of their destination. Still, they had several blocks to go, and Daniel couldn’t help feeling like they were being watched.  “Peggy,” he started.

 

“I know,” Peggy replied. “We’re being followed.”  So it wasn’t just his imagination; it was good to know that his instincts hadn’t yet failed him.  He was beginning to worry that he was becoming paranoid.

 

Daniel allowed Peggy to lead him through a narrow path between rows of cargo that reeked of fish, dodging men hauling nets and lumber and who-knew-what-else. They got a handful of curses for their trouble, and they made their way back out quickly.  Daniel glanced at the dock number; three more to go.

 

He stopped moving, pulling Peggy to a stop alongside him. “Daniel?” she asked, intelligent enough to realize that he wouldn’t have stopped unless he’d seen something, or come up with a plan.  Fortunately for her, it was the latter.

 

“See that truck?” he asked, nodding his head towards the one he was talking about. It was a flatbed truck covered in canvas, similar to a military truck.

 

“Yes,” Peggy answered, taking another look. “Oh,” she said softly.  “Well, yes, I suppose that would work.”  The side of the truck was imprinted with a number – the pier they were headed for.  Nobody was guarding it, so Daniel was really hoping that meant it was empty, and that it would remain that way.  It would provide them with cover, and allow them to move at least a little faster.

 

 _“There is a security breach in the rear containment corridor. I repeat, there is a security breach in the rear containment corridor.”_   The alert came from behind them, and Peggy and Daniel pressed themselves up against a container as four men walked past, heading for the opposite end of the shipping yard.  Where they had left Howard and the car.

 

“I’m going to kill him,” Peggy said calmly as the men disappeared amongst the shipping containers. “Just as soon as we get what we came here for.”

 

Daniel shrugged. “Well, at least it means we get to drive,” he pointed out, trying to repress the glee in his voice.  Judging by the knowing look Peggy shot him, he hadn’t succeeded.

 

After verifying that the back of the truck was, indeed, empty, Daniel struggled into the cab of the truck, grimacing as his leg made the climb a bit difficult. Peggy didn’t offer to help him, which he appreciated, and he settled his crutch next to him as she started up the engine with a loud rumble.  Nobody came running, and within moments, they were rumbling their way down the port.

 

As they drew closer to their destination, they saw a ship pulling away from the port, empty of cargo. At the same time, an alert came across the truck’s radio.  It was delivered in Russian, but they’d both served in the war, and recognized enough words to realize that their cover had been blown, the truck reported as missing. 

 

Men ran in their direction, pulling out weapons, and Peggy gripped the steering wheel tightly. “Can you swim?” she asked Daniel.

 

The agent had a sinking feeling about the direction this was taking. “I can tread water, but that’s about it,” he admitted.  “You’d do better to drop me off here and let me hold them off.”

 

Peggy looked over at him worriedly, but slammed on the brakes. The truck skidded to a stop, and Daniel grabbed the duffle bag and more or less tumbled out of the vehicle, hitting the ground with a grunt and rolling behind a stack of empty pallets.  He watched as Peggy hit the gas, the bullet-ridden truck rumbling down the pier before running off the edge with a loud groan, followed by an even bigger splash.  A moment later, her head popped up above the water, and Daniel breathed a sigh of relief.

 

Bullets hit the water around her, and Daniel pushed himself to his feet with a tired groan. Time to cause a ruckus.


	6. Edwin Jarvis

“Well, now, this is all kinds of exciting, isn’t it?” Howard whispered, delighted.  “I haven’t had so much fun since the war.”

 

Jarvis closed his eyes for a moment.  “I assure you, sir,” he responded dryly, “this is nothing like the war.”  He was careful to keep his voice low.  The whole point of them going in a separate direction was to be noticed, but only after they had gained sufficient distance from Chief Sousa and Miss Carter.  If Mr. Stark kept talking, they’d never manage to stay hidden for that long.

 

Howard leaned past the edge of a large red shipping container, then yelped when his hand pressed against the hot metal.  Twisting back, his elbow struck the container’s side with a loud bang.

 

“Who’s there?!” came the surprised shout, and Jarvis fought off the beginnings of a headache as two large men came around the corner, glaring at them and cracking their knuckles.

 

“Why, hello there, fellas!” Stark greeted, giving them his most charming smile.  Sadly, while it might work to woo the ladies, these men were obviously not cultured or from polite society.  Jarvis yanked his employer back by his suit jacket right before he would’ve ended up with a broken nose. 

 

“I’m terribly sorry, sirs,” he apologized, “we appear to be lost.  I don’t suppose you could direct us to the marina?”  He barely managed to stumble backwards before he got his head bashed in.  Well, he supposed that answered that question. 

 

Swinging his own fist, he managed to clip one of the men upside the head.  He resisted the urge to apologize – or gloat, and instead dodged around him, putting the other man between himself and the guy’s friend.

 

“Sir, I suggest we make a run for it,” he said, grabbing Howard, who was standing up from where he’d apparently fallen when the other guy had hit him.  His cheek was already bruising.

 

“Agreed,” he managed, then took off, Jarvis close on his heels.  The men chased after them, shouting into their radios.

 

Jarvis dove between two containers, his feet slipping in water and something far less pleasant, but he managed to stay on his feet and keep running.  Howard cursed behind him.  “I just had these shoes polished,” he complained.

 

“Regrettable, I’m sure,” Jarvis replied, wincing as he got a stitch in his side.  The pounding of feet behind him kept him moving.  “I think maybe we should head back for the car,” he suggested.

 

Howard turned a corner and skidded to a stop, then pulled out a modified handgun.  He didn’t even bother to aim, just pointed it down the alleyway.  A brilliant red light shot out of it, and men screamed, crashing into each other and tripping over their own feet as they struggled to get away.  “So that’s what that does,” Howard said after a moment, peering around the corner.  Jarvis didn’t look; he didn’t want to know.  “Ah, now would be a good time to make our way back to the car,” Howard said next.

 

Jarvis sighed quietly; so not dead then.  Unconscious, perhaps, but not dead.  Straightening up, he smoothed out his jacket as best as he could.

 

“I couldn’t agree more, sir.”


	7. Peggy Carter

“I am never, ever doing that again,” Peggy promised herself as she took cover behind a stack of wooden crates.  With Daniel creating a distraction back on land – she prayed he didn’t get himself shot – she had been able to make her way aboard the ship via one of the smaller boats used to ferry people and supplies around the harbor.  Her clothes were soaked through, and she’d lost her shoes in the murky water.  Impatiently, she brushed wet strands of hair away from her face, ringing them out with a grimace.  After this, maybe she’d take a day off. Go visit that spa that Rose was always trying to drag her to.

 

Sighing, she took a moment to gather her thoughts.  First, she’d need some dry clothes.  Which required either a room with a closet, or a person wearing one.  She supposed it was just as well that she was already barefoot, as she’d need to move quickly and silently.  Once she was fairly certain that nobody had noticed her arrival, she stood and slipped down the nearest corridor.  She had entered the ship around where the living quarters should be, which meant that she’d have to go down and back to locate the shipping containers and whatever they contained.

 

She heard the boots well before she saw them, and she ducked into the shadows, watching as a group of men jogged right past her hiding spot, moving in formation.  There were a handful of women there, as well.  It reminded her of basic training, and she grimaced.  Hydra Boot Camp.  Fantastic.

 

Still, she had never been one to waste an opportunity, and so she settled in to wait, wringing out her clothes as best she could and trying not to shiver.  Her radio sat next to her, drying out.  It was Stark tech, so it should work over a considerable distance, but she couldn’t risk being overheard just yet.  Once she had a uniform, it would be easier to send a transmission, as she wouldn’t look so out of place.

 

Within fifteen minutes, she heard the tromp of boots coming up the other way.  Biding her time, she watched again as a group ran past her hiding spot, a different group than before.  Nobody led them, and nobody trailed after them.  Hydra was very confident that their people would do as they were told, and didn’t bother to keep an eye on them.  Peggy could use that to her advantage.

 

As that group disappeared, Peggy moved again, keeping to the shadows, but switching to the other side of the hallway, waiting for the next group.  If she lucky, there would be a woman about her size in the group.  She could probably get away will ill-fitting clothes at first glance, but anything more than that would reveal her as a fraud.

 

Luck was with her, as the next group to pass by had two women that would suit her purposes.  The whole group was focused on their task, all of their attention focused forward; it was easy enough for Peggy to slip in behind one and wrap a hand around her mouth, dragging her back into the hallway.  The other woman fought, but it was obvious that she was knew at this, and it only took Peggy a few seconds to slam her head into the wall, dropping her with a loud crash.  She froze, listening carefully, but nobody came running.

 

With a quite grunt, she grabbed the unconscious woman under her arms and dragged her out of the way before stripping her, changing, and propping her up against the wall.  She’d undoubtedly be discovered before too long, but hopefully by the time the alarm sounded, Peggy would have found what she was looking for.

 

Tucking her radio into her waistband and running the wire up her shirt, she put the earpiece in her ear.  “Carter?” came the familiar English voice, tinged with panic.  “Are you all right?  Chief Sousa is with us.  Please respond.”  There was a brief pause, and Peggy fumbled for the switch that would allow her to reply.  “Are you safe, Miss Carter?” Jarvis spoke again.  “Are you all right? Chief Sousa is with us.  Please respond if you are able.”

 

“I’m fine, Jarvis,” Peggy replied hurriedly, and Jarvis cut of abruptly.

 

“Oh, thank god,” he replied at last, the relief clearly legible in his tone.  “Miss Carter, I would appreciate it if you would not do that again.  My heart can’t take it.”

 

Peggy could hear frantic male voices in the background, but Jarvis ignored them.  “Sorry, Jarvis,” she apologized, listening for the steady rhythm of running feet.  “I can’t really talk right now.  I’m going to keep the radio on two-way, but I won’t be able to talk.  Tell Daniel and Howard that I’m fine.  I’ll let you know if I find something.”

 

The second group came back through again, and Peggy fell into line.  The woman next to her didn’t even glance her way, much less say anything.  Peggy kept her eyes straight ahead like the rest of the group, but she tracked personnel and hallways in her peripheral vision, listening for anybody talking about something that might be relevant to the case.

 

Peggy found herself grateful for her time in the army as they were headed for the front of the ship rather than the back.  It would be a long run back to the other end.  She wasn’t even sure that what she was looking for would be up here.  It might be down below the waterline.

 

“Peg? I know you can’t talk right now, but I’ve got some information for you.”  Howard’s voice was completely serious, and Peggy listened, unable to reply without risking drawing unwanted attention to herself.  “I’m guessing you’re on that ship that’s leaving the port,” Howard continued.  “The containers up top won’t carry anything important.  No weapons, or anything else.  Food, maybe some household goods, nothing that would raise eyebrows if they were to be inspected.  You want to head below deck.  As far down as you can go without seeing pipes.   That’s probably where they’ll be keeping the bodies.  See if you can find a refrigeration unit.”

 

Peggy looked for a hatchway that would lead to the lower decks as they ran.  She very nearly missed it, hidden among a number of similarly colored containers.  She branched off from the group, and made it all of six feet before klaxxon’s started going off all over the ship.  _“Intruder alert! Intruder alert!”_   blared over the speakers.  Definitely not a normal ship, then.

 

“Peggy?!” The worried voice of Daniel in her ear let her breathe, finally.  He really was all right.  She hadn’t been sure when she’d left him behind to create a distraction on the dock, no backup anywhere close by.

 

“I’m a little busy,” he replied, tearing open the hatch and diving down the ladder, heedless of the metal that scraped up her hands.  She dropped the floor and took off running, searching for a door or hatchway that would get her out of the path of pursuit.

 

“So I heard,” Daniel replied wryly.  “But since your cover is blown, there’s no reason you can’t talk to us, right?”  There was something going on in the background, and then Daniel shouted something.  The tone was muffled, most likely by him putting his hand over his own radio.  He was back after a moment.  “We’re coming for you, so just stay safe until we get there, okay?”

 

Peggy frowned.  “You do realize that I’m on a ship surrounded by Hydra agents, right?” she hissed, wrenching open a heavy metal door and slipping into a dark room, closing the door behind her.  Men’s shouts echoed down the corridor as her pursuers ran towards – and then past – the room where she was hiding.  Peggy pressed ear up against the door as a second group of men ran past, then waited.  Further down the hall, she could hear them giving orders to split up.

 

“Look, Peg.  You find a safe room that you can lock yourself into, and you stay there, you hear?” Daniel ordered.

 

Peggy grinned.  “Did you actually expect that to work?” she asked, amused.

 

She could just imagine Daniel’s sigh of resignation.  “Not really,” he admitted, “but I figured it was worth a shot.”

 

“Nice try,” Peggy agreed, opening the door carefully so as to avoid making a lot of noise.  “I’m heading down, but do let me know when you get here, won’t you?”

 

She didn’t wait for Daniel’s agreement before slipping out into the hallway, looking both ways before moving further down the hall.  The alarm was still sounding up on the deck, and red lights were flashing down here, giving her a guide to follow.  Not very well thought out on their part, but Peggy took advantage of the added visibility to make her way down the unfamiliar hallways, her eyes peeled for another hatchway.

 

Fortunately for her, exits and stairwells were clearly marked, ad she steadily made her way downwards, listening for the sounds o f men talking before each new ladder or hallway.  Caution had served her well in the past, she saw no reason to change that now.

 

The drone of voices and the shuffling of feet, mingled with the click of guns told her she was getting closer.  The cool draft of air was another indication.  Slowing down, she peered around a corner, then pulled back quickly before the two men standing guard in front of a door at the end of the hall caught sight of her.  “Okay.  Okay,” she murmured to herself, checking her own weapons.  Most of them had been ruined by her dive into the waters of the port, but she had at least one or two that relied on something other than gunpowder.  Still, she’d need to move quickly once she started, because she couldn’t count on the initial confusion to last terribly long.

 

Pulling out two small round metal balls, she pressed a panel on their tops and rolled them down the corridor.  She covered her ears and closed her eyes.  Bright light strafed across her closed eyelids, even from the end of the hall, and she waited until another second before spinning around the corner and tearing down the hallway.  She hit the men before they managed get their sight back, taking them down quickly.  Their bodies made a dull thump when they hit the ground, and Peggy was up and past them before the men inside realized what was happening. 

 

Tossing more of the light and sound grenades to either side as soon as she hit the door, Peggy found her grateful for the combat boots she was now wearing as she ran, covering her ears and squinting.  The flash of light was painful, but not unmanageable – if one knew to expect it.  The concussive wave of sound rolled over her, deafening the men around here, even as gunshots went off. 

 

She grunted as a bullet clipped her, but she didn’t fall, and she didn’t have time to check on it.  Adrenaline kept her moving, and the pain was just a dull ache – just a graze wound, then.  She headed for  a cluster of men, their weapons already coming up, pointed straight at her.  With a grimace, she pulled out the slim metal triangle she’d grabbed from the warehouse and activated it, gratified when it slid open to form a shield.  It might not be Captain America’s vibranium shield, but it was one of Stark’s prototypes, and it did the job, taking a hail of bullets without more than a few dents.  The ricochets pinged harmlessly against the floor and walls, and she slammed the shield into the face of the first soldier she came to.  In her other hand, she held a baton.  She was surprised when she hit one of the men with it and they dropped, screaming.  She felt a jolt the whole way up her arm, like a shot of electricity.

 

The men scrambled around her, grabbing at her once they realized that their guns wouldn’t work in such close range, and she used their proximity against them, twisting around so she only had one man to fight at a time.  A jolt to the shield sent her reeling backwards, and a large fist grabbed at her shoulder, tightening painfully over the bullet wound.

 

Dropping the baton – it wouldn’t do her any good if they managed to break her arm, after all – she groped for the last of the grenades, pressing the top before it was even fully out of her pocket.  Twisting around, she pressed forward into the man who had grabbed her, throwing the shield over her back to protect her from the concussive blast, and using the man’s wide chest to cover her eyes.  The men around her fell away, leaving her staggering for a moment, dizzy with the sudden lack of combatants.

 

Keeping hold of the shield, she crouched down and scooped up the baton – Howard would kill her if she lost a piece of his tech to Hydra – then made her way towards a curtained off area.  Pushing her way inside, she looked around for more soldiers, or maybe scientists, but there was nobody.  She supposed Hydra hadn’t seen the need to have anybody guard dead bodies. 

 

Luck was with her, and there was a cabinet filled with files nearby.  Flipping through them quickly, aware that she was low on time, Peggy used Stark’s camera pen – he still complained about her calling it that – to take as many pictures of the files as she could, and a few of the bodies.  From what she saw as she looked through, they were the result of a scrapped experiment.  A lot of the notes were in code, and would undoubtedly require a cipher, but she could figure out enough to determine which papers were important.

 

Grabbing a handful of papers that seemed to follow a similar pattern, she straightened everything back up.  She looked regretfully at the bodies laid on cold metal tables, but they were beyond her help now.  The best thing she could do for them now was to get the files back to the SSR and let them take it from there.

 

Tucking the files into her clothes and folding the shield back into a more manageable triangle, Peggy moved back out into the main room, grabbing a uniform hat from one man and a gun from another.  She made it to the door while the men milled around in confusion shouting orders and regrouping.  Someone finally had the brains to send men into the room with the corpses, but Peggy was already past there.

 

A hand on her shoulder stopped her, and she turned to look at the soldier who had grabbed her.  “Did you see that woman leave her?” he demanded of her.

 

Straightening her back, and grateful for the dark shirt, she answered, “No, sir.  I didn’t see anything.  Or hear anything,” she added.  Actually, her ears really were ringing a bit, and she blinked a few times, as if blinking away blurry vision.

 

“Keep looking,” the man ordered, before turning around to shout at some of the men, organizing them for a room to room search.  Another man was on the radio, alerting the other levels to be on the lookout for a woman with dark hair and a shield on her back.

 

Peggy slipped out with the group of men, following them in their door-to-door search until she was able to break free, heading upwards.  Once she was sure she was somewhat alone, at least for the moment, she risked communicating.  “I’ve got what I came for,” she said out loud.  “ETA?”

 

“We were just waiting on you, Peggy!” a familiar voice called over the radio, and Peggy grinned.

 

“And what are you doing here, Dum Dum?” she asked, amused.  She could hear the hum of a plane overhead.  Boots were running, and she realized that now was her chance.  They were no longer focused on her.  Instead, they were focused on the air raid that was about to happen.

 

“Flying a plane, of course!” the other man crowed, absolutely delighted.  Peggy laughed, making her way up the hatch, waiting until a handful of men ran passed her before climbing onto the deck and making her way to the edge.

 

She peered over the side with a heavy sigh.  “Do send somebody to pick me up, won’t you?” she asked.

 

“We’ve already got a man on board,” Howard said.  “Can you give him a signal or something?”

 

Peggy rolled her eyes.  “I’m on the starboard side, by the lifeboats,” she told him.  Then she promptly climbed right into the lifeboat, curling up under the tarp.  “Don’t you dare blow me up,” she hissed once she was concealed from anybody passing by.  If somebody tried to use the lifeboat to escape and discovered her, she’d just tell them that she was told to get into a lifeboat and wait for others to join her before abandoning ship.

 

“Understood,” Howard acknowledged.  There was a moment of static as he switched frequencies.  Less than three minutes later, a dark-skinned, gruff man was standing over her, dressed all in black. On his uniform was a symbol, an eagle.

 

“Agent Carter?” he asked, extending his hand.

 

Peggy sat up, allowing him to pull her out of the boat.  “Yes,” she acknowledged.  “And who might you be?”

 

The man smiled.  “The name’s Agent Fury.  You got what you came for?”  Peggy nodded.  “Then let’s quit wasting time. I don’t like being shot at.”

 

Peggy gestured.  “Then by all means, lead the way,” she offered.  She was more than ready to get off this ship.

 

As she followed Agent Fury to their extraction point, she considered the symbol on his chest.  An eagle, huh?  Somehow, that seemed suitable.

 

She'd be sure to tell Howard so.  Just as soon as she got off of this damn boat.


	8. Peggy Carter (Epilogue)

Peggy sighed, settling onto the couch next to Daniel, allowing him to wrap his arm around her shoulder.   “Did you enjoy your day off?” he asked, teasing her even as he pressed a gentle kiss to the top of her head.  It was nearly a week after their invasion of the Hydra ship, and no more dead bodies had turned up in the water, here or in Malibu.

 

“I enjoyed it immensely,” she admitted, stretching out.  “How’s the search going?”  After their return to Los Angeles – and some quick medical care – Peggy had settled in to deciphering the files she had taken from the ship.  The humans they had found in the water were apparently a Hydra experiment to replace U-boats.  A human wouldn’t ping on a ship’s radar.  Or if it did, it would dismissed in the same way that dolphins were, too biological and small to be a torpedo or a submarine.  But something had gone terribly wrong, and they had started dying, winding up all along the shoreline, though a few bodies had somehow made it further upriver – the ones that the SSR had discovered before Hydra had covered the mess up.

 

Howard’s people were tracking down the scientists who had run the experiments in the first place, but they were keeping the SSR apprised.  Peggy trusted that if anything came of their search, Daniel would let her know.  Or they’d tell her directly.  It was nice to be surrounded by people who believed in her again.

 

“Still no luck,” Daniel sighed.  “They’re mostly just running in circles.”  Peggy laughed, her bare toes curling into the couch cushions.

 

“How are Jarvis and Ana doing?” Daniel asked after a moment.

 

Peggy smiled fondly.  “They’re doing wonderfully.  Apparently, Howard has found a woman that might actually be able to handle to him.  I haven’t met her yet, though.  Maria, I think is her name.  Either way, Jarvis seems to be absolutely delighted.”

 

“Any woman who can stop Howard Stark in his tracks deserves all the respect we can give her,” Daniel agreed, equally amused.  “Do you need me to look into her? Make sure she’s not a Russian spy?”

 

Peggy twisted around to swat at him half-heartedly.  “I already did it,” she admitted, chagrined.

 

Daniel chuckled, leaning down to kiss her properly.  Peggy responded in kind, and when they pulled apart, Daniel pressed his forehead against hers.  “I love you, Peggy Carter,” he murmured. “Even if you are a pain in the ass.”

 

Peggy smiled back at him affectionately.  “I don’t know why you do, but I love you, too,” she replied.

 

Daniel might have said something in reply, but just then the phone rang.  Reaching over to the phone sitting on the table, Peggy picked it up.  “Hello?”

 

“Hello yourself, doll!” Howard greeted enthusiastically.  “Are you busy? I’ve got something to show you.”

 

Peggy sighed.  “That depends, what is it?” she asked.  Her answer was already decided, though; she wanted to hear him say it.

 

“Why, Peggy, one would think you didn’t trust me!” Howard explained, affecting a wounded tone.  Peggy just waited silently, and on the other end of the line, Howard sighed.  “I found the blue cube,” he admitted at last.

 

Peggy froze, her hand tightening on the phone.  “Blue cube?” she asked, holding up a finger when Daniel opened his mouth, undoubtedly to ask if she was okay.  “As in, the energy source that Hydra was using for their weapons?  The thing that Steve Rogers crashed down with?”

 

There was a long, weighted pause.  Then, “Yes,” Howard said, his voice soft.

 

Peggy’s eyes narrowed, and she glanced at Daniel questioningly.  He nodded.  “Don’t touch it,” she warned him.  “We’ll be right there.”  She hung up without waiting for a reply, standing and heading for the bedroom to put on some proper clothes.

 

She came back out, ready to go, to find Daniel standing by the door, holding his coat over one arm.  “At least our lives are never boring,” he said as they walked out the door.

 

Peggy couldn’t have agreed more.

 

_Fin._

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I hope you enjoy this! It started out small, and then just kept going! I hope it falls within the guidelines you set.


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